Help Cover Mat's Medical Bills and Lost Wages.

My dear friend, Mat Bisaro, is currently hospitalized with colon cancer. On July 1st, his surgical team will be performing a total colectomy to remove the cancer and attempt to prevent further recurrence. Mat will certainly be facing a lengthy hospital stay, multiple surgeries, and most likely chemotherapy. As a bartender, he's missing out on the vast majority of his earnings with each day he can't work. Mat is also uninsured at this time, so the bills are stacking up quickly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

If you've been in a punk band in Columbus in the last 20 years, there's roughly a 50% chance Mat was your drummer at some point or another. He's played with the likes of Guinea Worms, Messrs, Unholy Two, Dan Melchior, Necropolis, Jordan O' Jordan, Ipps, and most recently with Hydrone and Unemployee. And I know I'm forgetting many more. Needless to say, he's an incredible drummer.

Also, if you've drank a good cocktail in town over the last ten years or so, there's decent chance Mat poured it or maybe even came up with the recipe. He worked at The Bottle Shop, in what no one would argue, was its golden era. He then did several extremely successful pop-ups under the banner of Walkout Popup with his fellow former Bottle Shop employees. He now mixes drinks high in the sky on the downtown rooftop bar, Goodale Station.

He's also an incredible Dad to Luca, a great boyfriend to his girlfriend, Hannah, and an amazing friend to many, including, obviously, myself. He was a groomsman in my wedding. We've been in two bands together, spanning something like 11 years actively playing music together. When you're a bass player, your drummer is your brother in arms. Outside of the bands we've been in, he's been my brother as well. We've stayed up til dawn drinking extremely questionable beverages, horsing around, and comforting each in dark times in our lives. He has at least one scar to prove it and I have him to thank for the only chest wall contusion I've ever had. Quite a few times, we've spent several days crammed in a van together, zipping about the country and we still speak to each other. Let me tell you, that is the true litmus test for a good friendship.

If you can, please reach in as deep into your pockets as possible and help my little brother out. Please share this far and wide. Mat's touched so many lives and I need as many of those people to see this as possible. I've still got a lot of shows left to play with this guy and I need your help to get him back on the drum throne ASAP. Thank you.

Benjamin "B.J." Holesapple

P.S., all of the proceeds from this go straight to Mat. Duh.